Poetry is More Than Ryhming Words

I was never really interested in poetry before I started this class, but I never really disliked it either. What I've learned about poetry in this class, so far, is that it is much more than just rhyming words together. Poems have so much depth and emotion to them and it's up to the reader to really scope out what the writer is portraying in such few words.
It's been enjoyable to read the assigned poems and analyze them. They're all so different in nature. Some are straightforward, while others have hidden meanings behind carefully selected words. It's also nice to find a poem in which you can relate to, which can also make it easier to interpret. With many poems, the reader can interpret it in many ways, but only the author will know the true message of their words. This combination of mystery and emotion is what makes poetry so powerful.

What I feel about poetry

Peotry is a special form of telling a story or a particular time in life. The author may know what the poem means but the reader may misinterpret it in many different ways. For example, the reader may just read the first to stanzas and just assume that the poem is about something because it's mentioned in those first stanzas. This is how our society is these days; we judge the poem and don't look into depth. Poetry can also be a form of music, such as bob dylan. Bob Dylan's songs are mostly based on poems. These are the kind of poems that I'm mostly interested in. I think it's pretty cool when a poem has a different meaning and can be told through reading and listening. Poetry is very different than short stories or novels, because the poets don't have a lot of room to get all there information in and they have to write it all in a certain format. The poetry I mostly dislike is the kind that use really big words that I don't know the meaning of; and that just making interpreting the poem a lot more difficult. The poetry that I can stand would be something that I can relate to, such as sports or family. This would catch my attention and maybe because I can relate to it more, I would read more in depth with it. Overall my thoughts on poetry is that, to understand the poem you have to really read it over and over and think about why the author would say whatever has been said. Personally I like poetry and I think that writing it can be fun at times, but obviously reading most of the more difficult ones can be confusing for me.

Brennan melts Frost

I'm not very good at deciphering poetry and uncovering the hidden meanings about bad childhoods or a secret life a speaker may have had. However, the poems I do love to read are about love, very girly I know. But I think if a poet is great then he should be able to express a love in a few lines that can take writers pages to do so or a singer an entire song. My favorite poem is "Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her" by Christopher Brennan. The poem makes you think about love and has a certain flow to it; while the final few lines truely express his feelings for her. It's one of the few poems that make me smile by just reading it. However, there is an entire collection of poetry by Robert Frost that I dispise. He contridicts what he says and tells lies to the reader. As if reading a poem isn't hard enough. Also the stories of his I have read are lame and pointless. They weren't funny or held some deep emotion that moved me. I think he should of had a day job and stuck to it.

Doe Season

In the short story "Doe Season" Andy is treated differently because she is a girl. Charlie and Mac would not have a questioned her coming if she had been in boy. Andy goes out to fetch firewood and when she returns she says she saw a deer. Macs response was "I bet you really didn't see no deer, did you?"(pg 515). Were she a boy he wouldn't have questioned her. In this story hunting is something the men and boys do so they treat her like she can't do the things they can, like she is less then. The one thing that would have been the same is the shot Andy took to kill the deer. The feelings would have been different. Being a boy, she would not have felt so horrible about killing something and joined in the excitement of shooting her first deer.

All For A Queen

John Updike gives the description of a woman's body in a very class way, he was a man of a classic time. In the short story "A&P" Updike displays his writing skills by doing carefully thought out description of a teenage boys thoughts without making it sound like a romance novel. Sammy admires the girl from a far, describing her looks and ending with the simple statment of, "I mean, it was more than pretty" (225). Sammy begins to take more notice of Queenie and thinks of her body in a more respectful and loving way. He describes how her neck looks so stretched out from her shoulders but is quick to say, "The longer her neck was, the more of her there was" (225). It's clear Updike or his characthers don't want to be preceived as a sexist person but one that is appreciative of a woman. In the end of the short story Sammy does gutsy move and quits his job in an attempt of being Queenie's king but he falls short and learns a life lesson (228). One he has her to thank for.

No "Andrea", just "Andy"

In the short Story "Doe Season", written by David Michael Kaplan. The protagonist of the story, Andy, has her fair share of prejudice to put up with. Not only does she endure the constant badgering of Mac throughout the sroty, who doesn't know any better, she also must put up with the over-inflated, "manly" ego of Charlie Spoon, who should know better. With all of this in mind, one may realize that there's a possibility that if andy were a boy, the trip might have been a little bit easier on her, then again, it also might have been harder.

For being a mature adult, Charlie Spoon sure has a bias toward young, innocent Andy. And he made it quite obvious that he doesn't want her with on the trip. "Charlie spoon was driving. "I don't understand why she's coming," he said to her father. "How old is she anyway -eight?"" (Kaplan, 512) Charlie is obviously bitter about Andy's presence on their guys day out, and Mac feels the same way; he felt the need to tease her the entire trip. ""That's about your size," Mac said to tease her." Kaplan, 512) as she gets a measly day pack handed to her as the men, and boy, get large backpacks. In the other hand, if Andy were a boy, Charlie might be more accepting, maybe even willing to have Andy tag along, and Mac would have a fellow young guy to play around with that is cootie-free. However, since Andy would also be 'one of the guys' She would also need to live up to their rough-and-tough image; Andy would need to prove to the others that he was manly enough to be on this trip. If Andy got as emotional as she did in the end of the story, Charlie, Mac, and maybe even her father, would think that he (andy as a boy) was too emotionally weak to live up to their tough-guy image, and Andy may be rejected even worse.

Either way one may look at the situation, there could be prejudice. If Andy were a boy, Charlie Spoon and Mac may me a bit more hesitant to judge a book by its cover, but if Andy fails to live up to their standards, it might just be the same unnacepting situation. Either way, there is that presence of rejection.

Girly girl vs. Tom boy

If David Michael Kaplan were to make Andy a boy in his short story, “Doe Season,” I believe things would be different for many reasons. Being a girl, Andy has a lot of pressure from her dad’s friend, his son, and her dad as well. She is a daddy’s girl and probably feels more pressure to please him than a boy might feel in her situation. The ocean intimidates Andy and even though her mom was in the water, Andy cannot find the comfort in the area her mom was in. Her father stayed closer to shore and “held his white arms above the waist-deep water as if afraid to get them wet” (514). This is one of the instances that hints at Andy’s stronger bond with her father than her mother. The pressure she feels from her father pushes her to be what she believes he wants her to be. After her father tells Mac and Charlie how good Andy is at spotting deer, there is even more pressure on her to live up to her expectations. Andy tells the boys she has spotted a deer and only “caused them to spend the morning there, cold and expectant, with nothing to show for it” (517). This is another instance building up to Andy finding her true ‘girl’ self. If Andy were a boy, she would not have had the dream about the doe she felt forced to shoot, and she would not have the guilt after shooting the doe that her dad gave her the privilege to shoot.

Doe Season

This story wolud have been different had Andy been a boy based on the way she was treated during the hunting trip. Early on her fathers friend Charlie made it clear that he was not too keen on Andy's presence, enroute to the hunting trip he states "I still don't understand why she's comming"512. Charlie would not have said this if Andy were a boy, also during the trip at some point All the men start teasing Andy making her feel uncomfortable in the process. Charlie starts off by saying "so what are you going to be Andrea a boy or a girl"?517 implying she was a confused little girl and had no business on a hunting trip with a bunch of men. Charlie makes another remark concerning his displeasure of Andy's gender "That's what the woods are about anyway it's where the women don't want to go"517. Centinly none of the comments and teasing would have been made if Andy were a boy because the men would have far more accepting of Andy. What would have been the same in the story is Andy looking up to her father and trying her best to please him throughout the trip like Andy did.

This is Now 'Buck' Season

In David Michael Kaplan's short story "Doe Season" the protagonist in the story is Andy, a young female on her first deer hunting trip with her father and his friends, Mac and Charlie. Throughout the story it seems as though Andy struggles with the relationship she has with her father compared to her mother. The woods in the story are a place that is familiar for Andy and a place that she spends time with her father. On the other hand there is the scene where Andy had visited the ocean, during the visit she is uneasy and this time was when she was with her mother. "That was the first time she'd seen the ocean and it frightened her" (514). This shows that she was not close to her mother and she was scared of the 'feminine' part of herself as well as pushed her mother away. The story would have been different if Andy was portrayed of a boy because the hunting trip would be seen as more of a right of passage into manhood. Also, if Andy were a boy there would have been little teasing and tormenting from Mac and Charlie. Such comments that came from Charlie such as "So what are you gonna be, Andrea? A boy or a girl?" (517) would not happened. There also would have been more emphasize on the actual masculinity of the hunting trip other then on the feelings that Andy had when she had shot the deer. Andy as a boy would have needed to prove that he was a man and confirm that he was able to hide his feelings, showing no empathy for the deer's life.

Goodness Gracious

There are many passages where John Updike conveys wonder in his physical descriptions in "A&P". Sammy, the narrator, describes one of the young ladies as having a "good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it.(224)" He also uses the terms "chubby berry faces(225)" and "long white prima-donna legs.(225)" The girl called queenie is wearing a swim suit with the should straps down and he describes what he sees as "this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the should bones like the dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean it was more than pretty.(225)" He doesn't stop here. As the story progresses he has more colorful descriptions of the girls physical features. He speaks of "the plump one in plaid, that I liked better from the back--a really sweet can--(227)" One of the girls pulls money out of her swimsuit, as he describes as "having come from between the two smoothest scoops of vanilla(228)."
In this day and age, the way women and girls are portrayed on television and in movies is in such a sexual light that I feel Sammy could get away with his take on the girls physical appearances. He never speaks of wanting to do anything physically to the girls and his comments seem to be very normal for a boy his age. He could have observed the same girls in the same outfits and made some very crass and demeaning comments, as many boys or men might, and this would have changed completely how i viewed Sammy. However, he is a normal boy with normal interests and he handles himself much better than some would in his situation. The passages are very descriptive but not overboard.